BOOK OF THE DAMNED 279 



have been racked off, and have fallen, exploding like the things 

 called "ball lightning." May have been objects of stone or metal 

 with inscriptions upon them, for all we know, at present. In all 

 instances, estimates of dimensions are valueless, but ratios of di- 

 mensions are more acceptable. A thing said to have been six feet 

 long may have been six hundred feet long; but shape is not so 

 subject to the illusions of distance. 



Nature, 40-415: 



That, Aug. 5, 1889, during a violent storm, an object that looked 

 to be about 15 inches long and 5 inches wide, fell, rather slowly, at 

 East Twickenham, England. It exploded. No substance from it 

 was found. 



L'Annee Scientifique, 1864-54: 



That, Oct. 10, 1864, M. Leverrier had sent to the Academy three 

 letters from witnesses of a long luminous body, tapering at both 

 ends, that had been seen in the sky. 



In Thunder and Lightning, p. 87, Flammarion says that on 

 Aug. 20, 1880, during a rather violent storm, M. A. Trecul, of 

 the French Academy, saw a very brilliant yellowish-white body, 

 apparently 35 to 40 centimeters long, and about 25 centimeters wide. 

 Torpedo-shaped., Or a cylindrical body, "with slightly conical 

 ends." It dropped something, and disappeared in the clouds. What- 

 ever it may have been that was dropped, it fell vertically, like a 

 heavy object, and left a luminous train. The scene of this occurrence 

 may have been far from the observer. No sound was heard. For 

 M. TrecuPs account, see Comptes Rendus, 103-849. 



Monthly Weather Review, 1907-310: 



That, July 2, 1907, in the town of Burlington, Vermont, a ter- 

 rific explosion had been heard throughout the city. A ball of 

 light, or a luminous object, had been seen to fall from the sky 

 or from a torpedo-shaped thing, or construction, in the sky. No 

 one had seen this thing that had exploded fall from a larger body 

 that was in the sky but if we accept that at the same time there 

 was a larger body in the sky 



My own acceptance is that a dirigible in the sky, or a construc- 

 tion that showed every sign of disrupting, bad barely time to drop 

 whatever it did drop and to speed away to safety above. 



The following story is told, in the Review, by Bishop John S. 

 Michaud: 



"I was standing on the corner of Church and College Streets, just 

 in front of the Howard Bank, and facing east, engaged in conversa- 



